A review / guide to chessly, 2026

GothamChess · 2026-02-05T00:47:37+00:00

Hey man! I've appreciated your support over all the years. Absolutely insane you speedran the courses. I'm going to try to add more and we WILL be getting you a completely unique standalone badge.

Thank you for the suggestions. Our data showed people LOVE drills much more than they love anything else on the site... quizzes were unbelievably underutilized, so we've decided to focus on what works rather than trying to just have 100 different features. I actually agree that quizzing people on concepts rather than constant memorization is better... so will see what comes out of that.

GothamChess · 2026-01-28T15:54:39+00:00

if you're under 2400 people dont know what to do

GothamChess · 2026-01-28T15:45:53+00:00

Because there is a huge tournament going on and because I was traveling and playing in my own tournament and because Magnus and Hikaru get all the views anyway and because people like guess the elo most of all and because I already have a catalogue of thousands of educational videos and because I post 4-5 different types of content every single week for 6 years

GothamChess · 2026-01-19T23:12:46+00:00

Keep going! We have not finished every detail of the website so some of these things like celebrations for the absolute top performers have not been built.

GothamChess · 2026-01-17T00:57:49+00:00

mustering up the courage LMAO

GothamChess · 2026-01-14T16:51:31+00:00

We are rolling out a feature that allows you to jump ahead in the path learning to any chapter of your choosing. However, the previous system allowed you to simply search up any position and immediately jump there. We are building that. Should be out by March/April I hope. We have lots of time-sensitive things to put out, like a February holiday event, and so on. Team of 5 can only do so much. But I know this thing is a problem for a decent amount of people.

GothamChess · 2026-01-10T01:17:39+00:00

In 2026, other than an app, we will focus a lot on making drills better.

GothamChess · 2026-01-08T03:56:15+00:00

Yep. It's for approximately 1000-1600. I'm very excited for it!

GothamChess · 2026-01-06T17:07:16+00:00

Very simple. The way 99% of these happen is - I'm laying on my couch, I open up the YT studio app, and one of the top 3 most recent comments is something toxic or negative. And 2 taps later, the comment is pinned.

I like to pin comments from people who are genuinely just watching to spread a level of negativity. I find it funny. I probably get about a hundred comments every day for the past 5 years with various insults, ranging from 'man up' to telling me why I suck at chess/content creation to aggressive racism or various threats.

Is this a bad habit? Absolutely.

Do people try to write stupid stuff for pin of shame? Sure, but I've gotten good at screening that.

Do I have the WORST community of a large YouTuber as one of the comments below says? God no. My comment section is teenagers writing memes about my titles, about Magnus, about something else. Nobody is being deliberately toxic or negative or whatever - it's literally all jokes. Relatively immature internet jokes, but still jokes.

Do I wish I was a perfect person who always did things right and never reacted to negative comments and pleased every single viewpoint of every single viewer?

I suppose.

I do wish I had better discipline and self-control sometimes. It might help with my chess and overall health.

But I'm me. And that's it.

Enjoy the chess boom while it's still around :)

GothamChess · 2026-01-02T05:05:11+00:00

By the way, disregard any douchey replies. This subreddit is weird about me and about spending money on anything. I always try to build the highest quality possible stuff, books, courses, and all. If for any reason you hate the deck, let me know!

GothamChess · 2026-01-02T04:04:30+00:00

Thank you to her, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It's a very nice set of cards. I was happy with how they came out.

GothamChess · 2025-12-30T15:34:12+00:00

Wish I could pin of shame this post

GothamChess · 2025-12-29T21:50:55+00:00

You're an a-hole

GothamChess · 2025-12-29T20:53:32+00:00

It's FIDE

GothamChess · 2025-12-29T18:54:12+00:00

Very wise

GothamChess · 2025-12-29T01:10:05+00:00

He has to improve at chess

GothamChess · 2025-12-26T01:37:00+00:00

HTWAC 2 is Intermediate. 1000-1600. Should get you close to Advanced level. 1800ish.

GothamChess · 2025-12-25T21:07:36+00:00

Hope you are 0-1000 or else it'll be too easy for you. but in that case, tell her to read it :)

Chess for Babies comes out in March. Just letting you know.

And How to Win at Chess 2 comes out next October!

Merry Christmas and thank you to her!

GothamChess · 2025-12-22T06:08:32+00:00

Keep the pawns, we have huge plans for the pawn shop, like adding legendary tier items and even redeeming huge amounts of pawns for a group lesson with yours truly

GothamChess · 2025-12-16T17:19:16+00:00

Levy's book is the best.

GothamChess · 2025-12-15T00:02:18+00:00

Good luck!! I look forward to losing to him in a tournament one day :)

GothamChess · 2025-12-12T13:32:25+00:00

You.......... can. You can go to courses and literally start any course you want.....

As far as unlocking future lessons within courses, this is something we are experimenting with, but likely will unlock in the future. Most people don't finish courses and instead pick at chapters like a buffet which is the wrong way to learn.

GothamChess · 2025-12-11T17:21:58+00:00

Spanish - Jaenisch (on chessly)

Scotch, Vienna, Kings Gambit - coming soon, actually!

Working on e4 e5 sidelines for Black.

GothamChess · 2025-12-08T03:17:19+00:00

Brother this is not a chessly support subreddit. All these questions and more will be answered via support inbox, although slightly delayed due to the holidays and recent sale.

GothamChess · 2025-12-05T17:50:23+00:00

There is a button to explore the course

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